Weeks after the glamorous African Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament in Ivory Coast, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) has announced the teams that will be partaking in the preliminary round stage of the 2025 AFCON tournament in Morocco.
The Preliminary round draw is organized by CAF for less football fancied countries on the continent. They play out against paired teams in order to qualify for the main draws of the competition’s qualifiers stage.
Eight teams made it to the preliminary round draw,Somalia, Eswatini, Sao Tome, South Sudan, Chad, Mauritius, Djibouti and Liberia. Four countries who emerge winners out of two leg of matches played will be drawn against the rest of the highly football fancied countries on the continent to play the qualifiers.
Somalia, Djibouti,Sao Tome and Chad were placed in pot 1 while Mauritius, South Sudan, Liberia and Eswatini made pot 2 respectively during the draw announcement which was held virtually.
At at the end of the draw, Somalia was matched up against Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, as Sao Tome got South Sudan to face. Chad will play it out against Mauritius while Djibouti also battle it out with George Weah’s Liberia.
The Preliminary round of matches will take place from 20th to 26th March, 2024. This is to qualify teams to the next African Cup of Nations Tournament which will be staged in Morocco in the year 2025.